Economy in Brief

In a renewed statement of discouragement, consumer sentiment fell again early in September. The University of Michigan reported that its mid-month reading reversed last month's uptick and fell to 66.6 which was the lowest level since [...]

Higher prices for energy products continued to lift overall consumer price inflation. A 0.3% increase in the August CPI (1.2% y/y) repeated the July performance. That news, however, is where the story of any strength in U.S. pricing [...]

It's of little solace that the latest General Activity Index in the Philadelphia Fed's September Business Outlook Survey bounced up. The reading improved this month to -0.7 from -7.7 in August, but that remained only the second [...]

The U.S. current account deficit widened in Q2 to $123.3 billion from a revised $109.2 billion in Q1; this result was very close to consensus expectations for $123.9 billion. The Q2 ratio to GDP is 3.4%, up from 3.0% in Q1. The [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 3,000 last week to 450,000 from an upwardly revised 453,000 in the week prior (originally 451,000). Claims remained the lowest in nine weeks, just before Census-takers began wrapping up [...]

The UK CBI survey showed backing off continues in the trend for new orders. Exports from EMU also have been weakening. Germany reported weaker IP and weaker new industrial orders. Germany’s Zew index has seen expectations back off [...]

The August producer price index for finished goods turned in its strongest gain since March with a 0.4% increase following a 0.2% July rise. Nevertheless, the y/y increase eased to 3.0% since the comparison was to strong gains this [...]

Last month's modest 0.2% gain in industrial production suffered from lower output of motor vehicles and matched Consensus expectations. However, overall forward momentum has lagged of late. The latest increase followed a downwardly [...]